SPARK- Art, Yoga & Meditation for Kids in NYC Reviews

Desperate to find an Art Portfolio class after a thorough search in the web, we came across SPARK. We were late in enrolling our daughter however, the staff and owner were very courteous and are extremely helpful in navigating this experience. This greatly helped my daughter put in the work! We highly recommend SPARK! If it were not for SPARK, my daughter would not have been accepted to her HS of choice.

Sebastian and his team, particularly Joel, did an amazing job helping guide my daughter with her work on her portfolio pieces. She learned many new techniques and explored various mediums. They challenged her to step outside of her comfort zone and provided extra attention and time, when she needed it the most. The studio space is warm and welcoming. I would definitely recommend this program (she got an acceptance from her top choice school!)

I have three children ranging in age from 7 to 16 and all three have taken virtual classes with SPARK. My 16-year old has been taking private animation lessons with Joel for several months now and she absolutely loves it. She looks forward to the lessons every week. Joel is incredibly thoughtful and well prepared and provides us with a recap of each lesson. He is also helping our daughter with her portfolio through SPARK's portfolio review program and it has been so helpful. The SPARK team is always well prepared and the lessons are great. Plus, the team members are all artists so they understand the way my children think about art. Thank you so much!

We recently celebrated our daughter's 9th birthday at Spark and had a wonderful time! Jonathan was very artistic, attentive and kept the children entertained and engaged at all times. We added face painting to our party and Maddy, the face painter, was exceptionally creative and very sweet/kid-friendly. My daughters had so much fun that now they are interested in taking art lessons at Spark! Thank you Sebastian, Jonathan and Maddy for making it a memorable experience!

Both my daughters attended Spark summer camp. They had such a fantastic time! Every day, they would wake up and be so excited to go to camp! They also never wanted to leave camp when we would go pick them up. They’ve learned so much in such a short time. Spark offered everything I’ve wanted them to be a part of in one place. The yoga, meditation, learning different art techniques and their background. Thank you for all that you do! Looking forward to continuing to be a part of Spark family!

Amazing summer camp and after-school program!

My 15 year old daughter attended the camp this summer. She was hesitant before going but when she got home she couldn't stop talking how much fun it was. She loves art, mostly drawing and felt it was very relaxed and fun but at the same structured enough for her to feel like she knew which direction to go on her projects. She was excited about doing some drawings while visiting interesting places in the neighborhood and going to Met. Teachers were very responsive and super friendly and fun.on the last day of the camp she brought home a beautiful painting that is now hanging on the wall.

Sebastian and the entire team have been entirely accommodating given the special needs of my daughter. They created a special curriculum for her and slowly introduced art to her in a meaningful way. My daughter is now more comfortable in art activities at school after working with Spark. I hope that others can see the value of their after-school and tailor made “pods”, especially families with kids with special needs looking for providers that are participating in OPWDD.

My son first started to take art lesson with Sebastian when he was in the third grade and that journey has continued till today when he now is a high school student (even Covid didn’t stop it!). We as a family are very grateful to have Sebastian in our life. He is such an inspiring and encouraging teacher and has the magic to connect with kids. My son has been taking private lesson with Sebastian for the past year and every session is not only an art lesson but also a precious private space where he comfortably talks about everything in his life with Sebastian! Anyone with experiences with teens should know that’s pretty amazing to have a teen completely open up to you and share their thoughts, positive or negative. As to the art lesson itself, my son always finds it fun and interesting! If you are looking for an inspiring and caring art teacher for your kid, you have found him.

We recently hosted my daughter’s birthday party at Spark. The new venue is located near the subway station, which is very convenient. The studio is spacious with large windows. The layout of the party was perfect. I requested a Monet painting theme and they accommodated my request. We also had a wonderful face painting artist who was great with the kids. The instructor was phenomenal. Jonathan was patient and did a good job keeping all the kids engaged. My daughter and her friends had a wonderful time. They got their own Money paintings on canvas. I highly recommend this studio for birthday parties, art classes, or summer camp.

We just hosted our daughter's 9th birthday party with SPARK. It was a great experience. Sebastian and his team are wonderful, very responsive, and they make everything run smoothly. They led the group through every step of the project we chose, and everyone went home with beautiful artwork! Their new studio is such a bright, happy place. It was just a pleasure to work with them. Highly recommend!

Spark has been such a refreshing and encouraging experience, I’ve grown w Spark these past few years and it’ll be sad to part from Spark but I know it will grow and continue to be great. It’s been a pleasure working with such amazing kids I love every single one and it was so hard to say goodbye,, I truly loved working with Spark and meeting so many great creative minds. I will miss it dearly 💗

We had the pleasure of working with Sebastian at SPARK to help our son create a portfolio to support his applications to high school. We had a tight timeline but were able to work with Sebastian to come up with a plan to still meet our deadline and he was incredibly accommodating throughout the process. He worked 1:1 with my son over Zoom to help him create a portfolio that reflected his authentic self, making the process that much more enjoyable for my son. He is a wonderful teacher with a patient and empathetic disposition for working with children. Even though it required a lot of time to put together the portfolio, it never felt like "work" for my son. He thoroughly enjoyed the process and loved working with Sebastian as a teacher. Sebastian helped him refine his technique (his medium is drawing) as well as taught him new techniques to bring his work to the next level. The work my son produced was without question his best work yet and he was so proud of his final portfolio, which he was able to submit with his high school applications. This experience also deepened my son's passion for art and desire to continue to invest in it. I highly recommend working with Sebastian and SPARK if your child is interested in art and looking to either assemble a portfolio for school or just deepen their learning.

We hosted my daughter's 5th birthday here - she is a budding artist and really enjoyed the party. Sebastian made the planning phase easy - we just showed up with cupcakes and favors! The space is large and easily held 18 kids for 2 guided art projects (painted canvas and a *very* fun silly drawing contest - the latter was a huge hit). Spark is well-established in arts education and they are growing their birthday party component. They were very open to feedback and welcomed our impromptu freeze dance parties! Recommended asking if music can be provided - if not, I would bring a portable speaker to use during the spaces between activities. They encouraged drop-off of the kids - but there is a sizeable anteroom separate from the party space - might be possible to host coffee/pastries for any grownups who wish to stick around.

Our son just finished his art portfolio for the art high schools admissions, working on it for 7 weeks with Sebastian and the other Spark teachers. This was an intense effort (because we started late) but Sebastian managed the timeline, taking this forward step by step and really pushing our son to create the different parts of the portfolio on time and more importantly to the best of our son's ability. 4 of the Spark teachers worked with our son on different parts of the portfolio. All were great, and each brought a different skill or specialty that helped our son learn and improve. We are very thankful to the Spark team, both for the result that had exceeded our expectations as well as for the progression and development that we saw in our son throughout this effort.

Our kids had the best time at Spark! At a recent camp they started the morning learning how to draw bright and beautiful floral pictures, becoming familiarized with blending colors, shadows and the portrayal of diverse textures via different strokes and lighter vs stronger pencil pressures. By noon, they were at the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art, visiting various galleries and sketching artifacts. It was a rainy day but the teachers kept them safe and sound and ensured that they had a worry-free, exciting day at camp!

A+++ experience. First off, I couldn’t imagine a better place to have my daughter‘s 9th birthday party. Sebastian and his team were so warm, welcoming, INCREDIBLY organized and prepared. They took the guesswork out of everything for me. Sebastian also has the unique ability to zero in on each individual child and ​really ​connect with them. He truly has a gift on what engages kids, what they like/need, not to mention - what parents need. ​After the kids were welcomed and everyone settled in, he took them through an hour long polymer clay lesson (geared to what my daughter had interest in) and the second half we had pizza, cake and fun. My daughter and her friends had a ​complete ​blast. I should also note, the overall vibe, ease of the booking, and the party itself, was unparalleled to anything in the area. It was well-priced, well-thought-out and a lot of fun. The UWS has a wonderful sense of community engagement and I am so glad SPARK is part of it. It's truly a neighborhood gem​ and I would 100% recommend SPARK without reservation and with enthusiasm!